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Back to School: Adjusting to an earlier bedtime at summer's end

By Melissa Rayworth, Associated Press

Updated:
07/23/2013 04:45:57 PM EDT

This Sept. 4, 2007 photo shows children unloading off the bus at Eugene Field Elementary School in Silverton, Ore., for their first day back to school. (AP Photo/Statesman Journal, Lori Cain, File) (Lori Cain)

Parents, you can already picture those first mornings of the school year: the challenge of dragging cranky kids out of their beds at dawn after two months of mellow summer mornings.

Each year, many of us swear we'll do it differently. We will listen to the experts. We will adjust our children's bedtimes back to a school-year schedule as soon as August arrives. We will work with biology, not against it, by dimming the lights and drawing the curtains in the evenings. We will remember the power of a good bedtime routine.

It does sound wonderful.

But each year, many families embrace the spontaneity of summer and the long, light evenings, ditching routines and enjoying late nights with the kids. Or maybe we really do try to get them to bed early, but Little League baseball games run late and vacations to other time zones make it impossible.

Then we try to get our kids up early for the first day of school and their bodies naturally rebel. It's never easy to be "waking up at the time you're biologically ready to be asleep," says Dr. Peter Franzen, child sleep expert and assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh's Sleep Medicine Institute.

Lack of sleep can affect kids' ability to learn, to remember and to handle emotions, he says.

So here are some tips for getting them back to a sensible bedtime:

Begin adjusting bedtime at least two weeks before classes begin, says family sleep counselor Dana Obleman, founder of the Sleep Sense system for getting babies and toddlers to sleep well.

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"You don't have to jump into going to bed at 7:30 and being really strict," she says. "But do an evaluation of where the bedtime has been falling and move back toward that by about 15 minutes every third night." (Of course, if you've altered your kids' bedtime by more than an hour, you'll need to make those changes in larger increments.)

For young kids, the most effective routine includes a warm bath and reading a favorite book. Skip television, which has a stimulating effect.

This June 3, 2013 photo shows Jaden Hartman, 6, and Kazden Hossack, 7, look through books in the childrenâ s section of the Natrona County Public Library on Friday morning in Casper, Wyoming. (DAN CEPEDA)

With older children, Obleman suggests having a sit-down meeting two weeks before school begins. Discuss the importance of being rested during the first weeks of school.

Plan a solid bedtime routine together, making sure they understand how much sleep is necessary. Children, from toddlers to adolescents, need 10 to 12 hours of solid nighttime sleep, Obleman says. Teens are likely to need at least 9 hours.

Once you've chosen a bedtime, agree to turn off electronic screens one hour earlier, because the light from these devices signals our bodies to stay awake, Franzen says. Kids already have a harder time getting sleepy at night as they reach their teen years due to changes in their body chemistry, he says. Looking at the light of electronic devices only delays that response further.

"Those routines can be very personal family rituals — a certain snack that you eat, a certain book you read, a certain song that you sing," she says.

For adolescents and teens, Breffni, says, keep in mind that the time they "go to bed" may not be close to the time they actually fall asleep. So make sure older students understand what time they should actually be asleep.

"One of my cornerstones is that if children are going to bed early enough, there shouldn't be a need to wake them in the morning," Obleman says. "If you're dragging them by the ankle every morning, they're going to bed too late."

On the last mornings before school starts, you might even induce the kids to get up early by taking them out to breakfast at their favorite restaurants.

In this Aug. 25, 2006 photo, Whitehall Elementary School children, including safety patrol fifth graders wearing orange vests, walk back into school as the 8 a.m. bell and start of a school day nears, in Anderson, S.C. (AP Photo/Independent-Mail, Ken Ruinard, File) (Ken Ruinard)

One final step, which can be especially tough on parents: Ideally, the whole family should go to bed early on those final nights. It may be hard to give up the late night hours you're accustomed to, but going to sleep earlier will benefit you as well as your kids.

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